The latest show at Gallery Los Olivos is marked by soft pastels, references to nature, and slight feminine touches. It features the jewelry designs of Patricia Watkins and the watercolor works of Peggy Fletcher.
Watkins’ creations feature beaded elements coupled with sterling silver and gold-filled findings. She also occasionally uses brass and copper, as well as vintage beads.
She’s been designing beaded jewelry for 15 years. Originally working for Zarah Company, which used artists for designing, Watkins was attracted to the freedom and flexibility of working for herself.
Her independent, classical, feminine creations incorporate moonstone pendant, pearls, kyanite, gemstones, and vermeil.
For the Los Olivos show, Watkins will also include one case of whimsical-themed jewelry with a sentimental back story as a tribute to a close friend of hers.
Watkins lets her love of value, color, shape, and balance shine though in her designs. She aims to achieve elegance without sacrificing a sense of fun in her pieces, which, for this show, complement Fletcher’s soft paintings.
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Fletcher’s contributions highlight serene pastoral views in pastel watercolor so delicately subdued they look vulnerable. She strives to achieve a realistic look combined with an impressionist feeling that can take a viewer to a peaceful place, she explained in her artist’s statement.
This technique lends a tranquility to the image, whether it’s a thoughtful egret looking past its rippling reflection on the shore as in Reflections on an Egret or a lily flower silently dancing on the surface as in Water Ballet II.
Though many of Fletcher’s subjects can be found along the Central Coast or near her Santa Barbara home—as in her portrait of a hungry sea otter in Got Fish—others, like the koala-centered Rock-a-Bye Baby, capture animals from her travels.
Gallery Los Olivos was founded in 1992 and is owned by an incorporated group of more than 40 artists from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties.
Welcome the colors of spring with a visit to see these artists’ work.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone has joined the new season. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 5, 2012.